Tejesh Arinkindular
History Pre-War The son of immigrants from India, Arinkindular was born in Boston roughly thirty years before the Great War in Massachusetts. Push hard by his parents, he would graduate high school at the top of his class and attend CIT. A brilliant programmer, Arinkindular secured a job with General Atomics International just prior to graduation and seamless transitioned into the company when he finally did. Over the next few years, everything in his life went right. He had a well-paying job he enjoyed, he had a girlfriend that he loved, and his future looked bright. In 2072, Arinkindular's world was turned upside down. On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, his parents announced that they had facilitated an arranged marriage with a family back in India, and that his bride would be arriving in the United States within weeks. Tejesh, obviously, was not interested in the arcane traditions of his parents and refused. Neither side relented as the weeks passed and the proposed day of the wedding got closer. The day eventually came and went, leading to a massive breakdown in relations between Arinkindular, his family, his American girlfriend and her family, and his Indian bride-to-be and her family. Not able to deal with the ordeal, Tejesh cut ties with everyone and everything in his life, suddenly moving out west to Portland, Oregon. By all accounts, Tejesh Arinkindular was miserable over the next couple of years. He was able to secure a transfer within General Atomics International, but his new job was well below his skill level and out of his comfort zone. He went from being a Research and Development coder to selling Mr. Handy and Ms. Nanny parts and units door-to-door. He was able to find a wife, but the development was completely unexpected and unintentional. After a drunk rendezvous with a regular at a local bar he sometimes unwinded at resulted in her pregnancy, Arinkindular did the right thing and married her, ensuring that the baby would be supported. In October 2077, Arinkindular begrudgingly attended a weekend camping get-away in the Sky Lakes wilderness area, organized by General Atomics International for salesmen and secretaries working in Portland. That Saturday morning, at roughly 6:30 PST, nuclear warheads rained down on America. Major cities to the north, south, and east were all hit, and though the Sky Lakes wilderness was not directly hit itself, massive wildfires and tectonic events devastated the 115,000 acres of forest, mountains, and lakes. Most of the 50-or-so General Atomics International salesmen and secretaries survived that hellish weekend. Three died in a rockfall, and one killed herself when she realized the severity of the situation. Tejesh Arinkindular survived the event, though, in the process, he lost sight in one of his eyes and broke a leg and developed a bad limp when the limb healed poorly. As the survivors mulled what to do, the radioactive rain and toxic fallout fell from the skies, causing more deaths. When all was said and done, roughly ten members of the original group died. Post-War The group of General Atomics International salesmen and secretary survivors split not long afterwards. Some left the mountains to try to find their friends and families. Others left the mountains simply because they could not comprehend the devastation that had unfolded and simply needed to do something. A few more killed themselves, unwilling or unable to live in the brave new world they found themselves in. Tejesh Arinkindular himself fell into a depression. In the weeks and months that followed, he took up writing. As he sunk deeper and deeper into depression, his writing took darker and darker undertones. He began conflating the destruction around him to the Hindu myths of his youth, of magical battles between gods and demons, and the end of the world with fire. Arinkindular's seminal work, The Nayavishv Kavinaash- translated into English from Hindi as "A New World of Destruction"- was heavily based on those Hindu myths and legends. In it, Arinkindular asserts that existence is cyclical in nature. Thousands and thousands of years ago, the universe was devastated and replaced, and in and in thousands and thousands of years in the future, the universe will be devastated and eventually replaced. The destruction that was unleashed during the Great War signaled the end of the last aeon, and the futile rebuilding efforts of those that survived are simply the death throes of a world refusing to let go and move on. Only by completing what was left unfinished by the nuclear bombs- the total and complete extinction of all life- can the last, dying aeon end and the new aeon begin. Arinkindular died not long after completing his treatise, succumbing to pneumonia in 2078. His work would be discovered some years later by a group of roaming wastelanders, who would become inspired by what he preached. Those men and women would go on to become the Purifiers, a hybrid religious cult/raider gang. Category:Characters Category:Deceased